Bulletin #14: A more caring world

This fortnight  

This 28 November marked three years since the passing of Amit Sengupta, one of the founders of the People’s Health Movement, whose contribution to the global health movement is difficult to express in words. Amit was thoroughly dedicated to the idea of health for all, and he often said that achieving it also implied building a world which is more just and, importantly, more caring. Since he last called for a more caring world at the 4th People’s Health Assembly in Savar in 2018, it has not yet become reality, but people all around the world continue to be driven by the idea of it.

At the end of November this year, two international organisations were supposed to hold high-level meetings which could influence the course of the pandemic response in the months to come. While the World Health Assembly (WHA) began a special session to discuss the Pandemic Treaty, a new instrument to guide future pandemic responses, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was getting ready to hold the first in-person Ministerial Conference in four years.

The WHA went ahead, but the MC was cancelled at the very last minute when scientists from South Africa alerted the world about the Omicron variant. Numerous health and trade activists were still able to march through the streets of Geneva and call for the WTO to adopt a TRIPS waiver to allow equitable distribution of Covid-19 medical products, stop vaccine apartheid, and minimize the risk of new variants. We talked to Fatima Hassan from Health Justice Initiative about the significance of the TRIPS waiver. We also bring a report from the central mobilization in Geneva.

The protests were special not only because they were the first in-person action since pre-pandemic times for many, but also because they brought together different movements. This time, trade and health activists joined forces, signalling to the world that they have a lot in common.

Workers, including those in the health sector, have also ramped up their support of the TRIPS waiver. Recently, a coalition of dozens of nursing associations, as well as one of the biggest international trade union councils, have sent appeals to governments and UN agencies to act on behalf of the people of the world and suspend intellectual property rights that are obstructing access to vaccines.

All this has happened as uncertainties about Omicron have quickly spread around. To provide more clarity, we bring an explainer with Dr Satyajit Rath and we look into the new aspects of discrimination that the new variant has brought along, in our Data speaks section.

Why should health activists care about WTO’s agenda?

While the recently cancelled WTO Ministerial Council was supposed to discuss the TRIPS waiver, its agenda included other topics that should be taken seriously by health activists

People’s movements, trade unions, and left parties join hands demanding TRIPS waiver on COVID-19 medical products

After the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference was called off following the discovery of the Omicron variant, trade unions, civil society organizations and parties on the left ramped up actions in favor of a TRIPS waiver for Covid-19 medical products

“Big Pharma should not be the one calling the shots during the pandemic”

Fatima Hassan from Health Justice Initiative talks about the TRIPS waiver proposal, vaccine apartheid, and the WTO’s role in pandemic response and recovery

The TRIPS waiver proposal is a workplace issue

Trade unions and health workers are increasing their pressure to make the small group of rich countries blocking the TRIPS waiver proposal back off

Video: What to expect from the WHO's Pandemic Treaty

Natalie Rhodes of the People's Health Movement and Priti Patnaik, Founding Editor at the Geneva Health Files, talk about the pandemic treaty of the World Health Organization, what lies ahead, and how it could address future health emergencies

Video: ‘Omicron’ the new Covid-19 variant: What is it all about?

Immunologist Dr. Satyajit Rath and NewClick’s Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha discuss the new variant, Omicron and the precautions necessary to stop its greater spread

Data speaks

In case you missed it

Myanmar: Political turmoil threatens HIV care | Doctors Without Borders APAC

Doctors Without Borders APAC

The ease of the virus in vaccine apartheid - RLS Geneva

Omicron. It was with science and conscience that Johannesburg immediately shared the genome sequence of the variant. A gesture of epidemiological responsibility, but also of rare political coherence. It is a pity that Europe, together with Switzerland and the USA, responded to the South African tran…

RLS Geneva

Omicron throws spotlight on South Africa’s faltering vaccination campaign

Most South Africans say they are happy to get a COVID-19 jab, but a lack of easy access to vaccine sites gets in the way.

The New HumanitarianAlessandro Parodi

Do We Need a Pandemic Treaty Now?: Policy Brief by People’s Health Movement - People’s Health Movement

Many issues which need to be addressed to properly strengthen international health emergency preparedness and response are born out of our unjust neoliberal international society. The dominant perspective on global ... Read more

People's Health MovementJyotsna Singh

Colombia: Shoots on sight: eye trauma in the context of the National Strike - Amnesty International

This report, produced jointly by the Programa de Acción por la Igualdad y la Inclusión Social (PAIIS) of the Universidad de los Andes, Temblores and Amnesty International, documents the violent repression of social protest in Colombia in the context of the National Strike that began in April 2021 an…

Amnesty International

Black Box East: The Politics of Avoidable Covid-19 Deaths in Romania

Romania’s Covid-19 related vaccination campaign was successfull at first. But then ‘vaccine skepticism’ began to spread everywhere. Rather than simply identifying ’information, education, and commu...

MediapartBerliner Gazette

Cuba’s Vaccine Could End up Saving Millions of Lives

Thanks to its public biotech sector and its government’s deep commitment to public health, Cuba is now the only low-income country to have made its own COVID vaccine. It’s already helped millions of Cubans, and it’s poised to help millions more around the world.

Branko Marcetic